


Behold, the fire and the wood

by Ford_Ye_Fiji



Series: and love will be your teacher [10]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, At least no comfort in this one fam, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, There’s comfort in the next installment okay I’m not a total monster, Tiny Zuko is secretly a total bamf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-15 02:41:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21246158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ford_Ye_Fiji/pseuds/Ford_Ye_Fiji
Summary: That which is inevitable and fated to be comes to pass in exactly the worse kind of way





	1. spirit of the sun

**Author's Note:**

> I changed from past tense to present tense for this chapter so uh yeah I guess you could say it’s pretty serious ajaksks 
> 
> Also I will respond to all your kind comments on the previous installment!! I’m just very slow and this week has been rather overwhelming! Plus I wanted to get this out to you guys ASAP!

Iroh is ensconced in meetings for the next two days. 

Zuko lingers outside the room, but even he is not allowed inside. Azula seeks him out and distracts him for a few hours with a pitiful but noble attempt at a game, but soon after he finds himself back outside the looming seemingly impassable door. He still does not get in.

Eventually, on the third night, his day having passed agonizingly slowly, he retires to bed without any success. 

An explosion wakes him. 

Zuko's eyes fly open and he stumbles out of his bed and towards the window. It’s a blazing beacon in the night, his pupils shrinking in the face of the roaring fire. It could only have been caused by a good deal of blasting jelly. 

He realizes then that he knows that part of the palace. 

The war room. 

_Iroh._

But Iroh is fine. 

He  _has_ to be. 

Zuko scrambles toward his door, and his hands wrap around the doorknob just as it flies open. Zuko falls backwards, gaping, and there are soldiers- but they’re not  _his_ . They’re not La'nh and Xuan. He can see two dark figures sprawled on the floor, behind the men, blood pooling around their still forms. He knows immediately that that is them. His breath stops in his throat.

An explosion where his father is. Soldiers at his door with weapons drawn. A country that has been roiling with turmoil in the three days. A perfect opportunity for a usurper. 

_This is a coup. _

His mouth slips into an effortless snarl, his brows furrow, and he scrambles to his feet. The soldiers lower their spears to face him. He can see six at least. 

They should’ve brought more. 

The prince fights like a wildcat. His room is soon scorched rubble and the battle is taken out to the courtyard. Soldiers pour in to support their brethren, firebenders fighting firebenders. Even with the Dao swords that he kept under his bed, dancing like manifested rays of Agni's light, Zuko is no match for that many men. 

Even after they string him up in chains, he spits fire like a true dragon. When General Qiao strides into the cell they’d wrestled him into, he snaps at his men, "Are you a bunch of fools?" He bends the prince's wild attack away deftly and gags him. 

That is how Zuko is brought before Ozai as Agni's rays are just cresting the horizon. 

Zuko glowers, blood dripping from a cut on his head, arms chained behind his back. Qiao kneels, Zuko tilts his chin upwards and makes eye contact with Ozai, refusing to kneel and refusing to back down. 

Ozai's lips curl, "Zuko. My son. I was hoping you'd be more... cooperative." 

Zuko's nostrils flare. 

He folds his hands together, "Qiao. Is the gag really necessary?" 

Qiao's lips purse but he removes it. 

Zuko bars his teeth, "I am _not_ your son." 

Ozai snarls, "Unfortunately, you are." He stands, circling the prince like a sharkkoi circles it’s prey. 

Zuko's eyes warily follow him. Ozai stops and leans down, by his ear, "Will you not join me Zuko? The military obeys me. Following that doddering old fool of an uncle is no longer possible, considering that he met such a tragic end in the unfortunate explosion." 

Zuko's eyes widen as Ozai stalks away, "You're lying! Father is alive!" 

Ozai turns, eyes flashing, " _I_ am your father!" 

" _Iroh_ is my father. You never cared for me. You don’t care for Azula! You don’t care for mother! All you care about is yourself!" Zuko's voice cracked, eyes wet, "You don’t even care about the fire nation!" The soldiers shifted uneasily, Ozai's eyes flicked over to them and then back to his son- to the rightful  heir of the throne, "All you want is power and you wouldn’t hesitate to kill anyone in this room if you thought you could get it!"

Ozai's face darkened, he hissed with warning, "_Zuko_-"

The prince was crying, weeping for the father he had gained and lost, "Iroh isn’t dead, not as long as I live- and you- you’ll  _never_ be Fire Lord!"

That was the wrong thing to say. 

Ozai snarls, eyes bright, only just stopping himself from silencing that disrespectful mouth. Zuko is too beloved by the nation to kill and a child murderer could never be Fire Lord, or at least, his reign would not be a long or loyal one. Zuko as an heir was preferable for appearances, but alienating him... well, it was no irreparable loss. 

Ozai's lips curl as Zuko continues sowing the seeds of discord, "You've killed your own brother! How could you  _ever_ be fit for the throne?" 

Ozai thunders, "Prince Zuko!" 

Zuko's mouth shuts with snap. At least Iroh hadn’t destroyed  all the habits he'd ingrained into his son. 

Ozai hisses, voice full of malice and rage, "You _will_ learn  _respect_ , and  _suffering_ will be your teacher." 

The prince isn’t prepared when Ozai reaches forward and presses his hand over his left eye, palm rough against his tears. His touch a gentle mockery of love. Ozai may not be his father now, but he had once been before, surely he wouldn’t... Zuko has a split second of terror and realization of what is to come as he feels the beginning of fire roil under Ozai's skin. 

He stares into his once-father's eyes and nothing stares back. 

Heat engulfs him.


	2. the fire fever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to past tense!

Flames danced along his fingertips, dancing like dragons. He couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away from them. Dimly he can recall Iroh whispering to him, as gently as his mother used to hold him, " Fire is _life_, Prince Zuko. " 

Azula crowed, throat clogged with unshed tears and fury, " Fire is _perfection!_ " 

Ursa murmured, hands over her mouth, breath hitching, " Fire is _fear_. " 

He felt Ozai's hands on his shoulders, " Fire is _power_. " 

The flame in his palm went out, snuffed out like a candle in a too rough breeze. 

His inner fire felt cold, far colder than he’d ever been before. He could not feel Agni's light anymore he realized and that thought terrified him here, alone in the dark, memories whispering to him like poison. 

" Oh, my son."  Iroh spoke, as lovingly as he always had and now never would again, "Everything will be fine. " 

Zuko wept and he felt his face blistering in the heat. Iroh was dead. Murdered by his own brother. Zuko's left eye throbbed, he could still feel Ozai's hand on his face, burning, burning, burning. The last thing he remembers seeing is his face twisted in rage, eyes sparking with a ferocious emptiness. 

Zuko is too scared to reach up and touch his burn, he is terrified of finding a lack of skin and muscle, just bone burnt the color of ash. 

He cradled his hands, so cold and so hot at the same time. 

A voice interrupted this strange in-between, like the first rays of Agni's morning after the long dark, " _My sun, why do you weep?_ " 

Zuko shuddered, compelled to answer,  _wanting_ to answer, "For my father. For my sister. For my people." He bent his head, "For myself."

" _Do not weep. For they are not gone._ " 

Zuko shook his head, remembering those upturned faces when father had announced the end of the endless war. There had been an opportunity there, a chance to make peace, to restore balance, and they had lost it, "I’ve failed them." 

" _You have failed nothing. You are a true child of Agni, my sun._ " 

Zuko wiped his eyes, "I don’t think I am." 

" _Believe me, I would know, my sun._ " There is a puff of breath- of warmth and light in the endless freezing dark and the embers in his chest rekindle into a healing flame. 

He asked quietly, fire dancing along his fingertips again, dancing like dragons, "Why?"

" _Because... there is much more work for you to do, Fire Lord Zuko. You can not restore balance, but there is one person who is destined to do just that. Someone you are destined to find..._ "

* * *

Zuko blinked wearily, good eye crusty and scabbed. He feels as if he hasn’t moved for a week. The last thing he remembers.... is Ozai, and something warm and alive, red and blue flashes, but not much else. His throat burns, his mouth dry and parched. Everything is dark, but he hears whispers, "He will be fine, m'lord. He's recovered from the fever-“ a growl of discontent, more murmurs and then a whisper of fire. 

He shut his eye against it, coughing harshly as he shifted. 

The murmurs grew louder, someone forced cool liquid down his throat and he drifted away into nothingness. 

At least this time, he was warm. 

* * *

Zuko is huddled in the corner of his cell. 

His whole face throbs. He only dimly remembers someone bandaging his face, but he doesn’t remember much else from the harsh fever his burn had brought on. Will he ever see out of his eye again? 

He finds he doesn’t really care at the moment. 

Ozai had  _branded_ him and  _Iroh_ ... Iroh is  _dead_ . 

The soldiers outside his door do not speak and when he breathes fire, lashing out, they threaten to gag him. 

That is enough to still him. 

He supposes it is the third day since he woke, he honestly can’t tell, he's lost complete track of time since Ozai made his move. The endless hours blur together so that the only way to get any sense of time is by the changing of the guards. But, by the third day, he estimates, he gets a visitor. 

It’s Azula. 

Her angry shouts are impossibly comforting, "I don’t care! I want to see him!" 

"Princess, he’s not allowed any visitors-“ 

"I am the Crown Princess, do you dare disobey  _me_ _?_" 

They muttered quietly, but she must’ve won because she stands before his iron bars alone. He doesn’t turn to face her as she chided him, "Oh Zuzu, why didn’t you cooperate?"

"What do you want, Azula?"

She scoffed, "For you to stop being such a dum-dum!" 

Zuko screwed his face up and wrapped his arms around his knees, refusing to cry, "Did you know about this?" 

She’s hesitant, "Well... no. Father didn't tell me. Not till afterwards." He could feel her toss her hair, "A bunch of assassins killed Uncle Iroh and then you turned into a big crybaby and tried to attack everyone. You’re being ridiculous, Zuko. Everyone's calling you the poor mad prince. It’s rather annoying." She snorted, "If there's anyone that would go mad here, it would be me." 

Zuko's good eye blinked. He hadn’t expected Ozai to lie so blatantly. Hot fury filled his lungs, his brows drew down, and he finally turned, "_Ozai_ killed Iroh, Azula!  He did it!" 

Azula's eyes went wide as she leaned forward, speaking into the sudden silence, "...What did you do to your eye?" 

Zuko wrapped his fingers around the bars, " I didn’t do _anything_." He reaches up and he yanks at the white bandages. His skin burns in the air, and he watches Azula's face twist in disgust. It must look awful. He hisses, "The new Fire Lord did this. Because I spoke the truth, Azula."

Her eyes narrow. 

* * *

Azula paced, teeth worrying on her nail. She’s not nervous, no, she’s _furious_. She feels like she could burst at the seams from rage. She longs to burn down this stupid palace. Father had said  _assassins_ had killed Iroh. Zuko had said it was all a lie. Zuko was the exact sort of person who couldn’t lie to save his life. He wasn’t good at it, not like _her_. Not like her  _father_ . 

Father had lied to  her . 

What else had he lied about?

Something inside her stilled, whispering insidiously to her. 

She hadn’t seen mother since before the explosion. 

Ozai had explained her absence anyway, he'd said she’d gone on a trip since the palace was so dangerous. Her mother had never once left, not when Ozai's life had been threatened, not even when Zuko was just a small child and she hadn’t existed- there had been the infamous poison incident. Mother had always been there, she knew. 

What had father _done? _

He’d lied to her, he’d hurt what was _hers_, and mother-  _mother_ ... 

In her heart, the princess knew what had happened. She knew how convenient, how perfectly timed, Uncle Iroh's death was. She knew Ursa would have objected to it. Just like Zuko had. If she had been father, she knew what she would have done. 

Mother had not gone on any trip.

Mother was probably... 

Blue fire blazed around her fists, as she paced the length of her room. Father had taken what was hers. Zuko was  _hers_ . Mother was  _hers_ . How  _dare_ he? And he lied about it! To _her! _

She glared at the doorway and extinguished her flames, sparks snapping at her fingertips. Well. She learned by her father's example. She was going to take back what rightfully belonged to her. 

Azula's inner fire burned and she knew what she had to do. 


End file.
